


To Observe The Evidence

by Fervidflowering



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gen, JT has a husband and Ainsley has a girlfriend, M/M, Non-Chronological, Romance, Slice of Life, Swearing, The Jessica Whitly/Martin Whitly is not positive, theyre just in a couple chapters together and i wanna include the tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-11-26 00:48:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 38
Words: 3,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20921414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fervidflowering/pseuds/Fervidflowering
Summary: A collection of drabbles (fics of 100 words exactly) about Dani, Malcolm, and all the others. None of the drabbles are in chronological order, unless they are part of the same story, like chapters 19-21, which are all set at the same event.





	1. Begin

He comes in, suit pressed and eyes no more exhausted than before. Dani glances at Gil as Malcolm passes to observe the evidence; Gil maintains eye contact for a moment. She chews her tongue in silence, JT voicing up.  
  
“Are you getting enough information from there?”  
  
“Well, I would have preferred getting to look at the crime scene itself, but with the bomb--” He slants a look back over his shoulder.  
  
“Hey, don’t look at me, I didn’t plant it.”  
  
“I wasn’t suggesting you had, James. Though now that you mention yourself as suspect…”  
  
JT rolls his eyes; Dani smirks.


	2. Brontide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brontide – The low rumbling of distant thunder.

He is asleep before she’s left his bed. Pale, too-thin, he looks as though if she were to shake him he might crumble to pieces. But he’s tried to shake himself to pieces--needle to his arm, snakes with this last case, who knows what else before or since--all those attempts and here he still remains. Shackled into his own bed, helping capture killers. Of sterner stuff she knows he is made.  
  
She settles herself in for the night. Pulls a book out from his shelves, seats herself in the white chair beside his bed, and waits out the storm ahead.


	3. Contiguous

“So, detectives, anything new and exciting to tell?” He waltzes past them all into the conference room.  
  
“Bright?”  
  
“Detective Powell, you have something to share? Did you start off the day with a new coffee? There’s a new café down the street. I haven’t gone, but--”  
  
“Malcolm. Stop.” She’s not touching him. She’s not touching him. She gets close enough he can’t keep turning his head to the right. “Your hair’s not hiding anything,” she tells him, low. His hair hangs over the rightside of his face. She shoves her hands in her pockets. Restraints when he’s inebriated are different.


	4. Quidnunc

“Detective! Can you comment on the crime scene?”

“No, I’m afraid I can’t.”

“Hey Ainsley. Get sent on another crime report?”

“Hi Malcolm. Part of the job. This is gruesome enough for a profiler to be called in?” She motions Frank to lower his camera. She hopes he doesn’t decide to steal shots, she’s starting to like him. “I assumed, since you weren’t at brunch, you’d decided to skip town again. Glad you’re still in the city. Are you going to introduce us?”

“Uh, Ainsley, meet Detective Powell. Detective Powell, meet my sister.” She smiles, offering her hand.


	5. Dystopia

Jessica plucks her favorite bottle of gin out from the wall and walks with well-controlled steps. She’s in control. No one in the house, but her manners keep her back straight as she pours a glass on the side table. As soon as she stoppers it, she slouches and toes off her pumps, kicking them across the room. Her lips are tight, neck strained, for a moment her fist white-knuckles the glass.

She throws the gin down her throat. Jaw clenched, she drops the glass to the carpet and frowns at the bed. She wants to dream of strangling him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually like Jessica. I think she knows more than she wants to share with Malcolm, but she's still one of Martin's victims. 
> 
> Anyway! Thanks for reading these!! They're fun little exercises to write. :) If you ever have a prompt (one word or otherwise), feel free to leave them in the comments.


	6. Pursy

Ainsley bites into the apple; juice slips down the side of her mouth and she wipes it away. She watches her brother over the sandwich and its wrapper on her lap, his eyes on Gil. Mal laughs, eyes closed, bright under the gray sky. Gil’s pleased. Ainsley’s lost track of the conversation. Gil looks at her, smiles a little smaller, but still there.

Father figures to the left and the right. And what does she have? A mother who doesn’t respect boundaries. Ainsley bites into the apple; juice slips down the side of her mouth and she wipes it away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who does Ainsley have? Her social sphere so far is her mom and her brother, neither of whom she is very close to as much as we get to see. I'm a bit worried, but excited to see where they take her if they take her somewhere :D


	7. Utepils

18 years’ve passed, but Gil still feels the sunshine of the memory. Jackie next to him, cheering as Malcolm showed her his A+ paper. The beer bottle was in his hand, Jackie’s cooing over Malcolm was in his ear, the sun gave the other two golden haloes. The porch wasn’t clean, but no one minded the thin dirt on their pants.

He wants so much to freeze the moment. To keep Jackie next to him, laughing, bright. To hold Malcolm in their yard, fracturing but safe for now. He wants to sit in the sun and smile with them again.


	8. Vitiate

He wakes with a scream he’s already trying to choke down, teeth buried in the mouthguard. He snags, caught by his restraints, and breathes.

The time is too early for the sun to be up, but awake is he.

Through the morning motions he goes: unbuckle, exercise, drink, take the pills, read a card.

Today, it reads: I am honest in my life, and my work. His fingers itch to tear it up. He slips the paper onto the countertop and slides over to make a list.

The motions carry him to a café for hot chocolate and a book.


	9. Capernoited Pt. 1

“He’s so slender and just ... just so slender.” Edrisa takes another sip of her martini and brushes the base. She purses her lips and swallows. “Don’t you think so?”

“I think you’re half in love.” Dani smirks and rolls her eyes. The bar’s noises swallow up her chuckle.

“No! No, I just think he’s very ... he’s very…” She pouts, glances over the rim of her glasses.

“Just so, so slender?” She plucks up her glass, licks off some of the sugar, and takes a sip. As, Edrisa blushes, stammers, and waves her hands to ward off the joke, Dani laughs.


	10. Capernoited Pt. 2

“He is though!” She holds a hand over her eyes and leans back. “God, I have a type. Skinny men who compliment my deadpeople stitches.” She shakes herself, cheeks rosy, and looks up. “What’s your type Dani? Please tell me it’s as embarrassing as mine.”

Edrisa leans in and Dani leans over the table herself, pushing her drink out of the way, her lips tilted up. “You really wanna know?”

Edrisa nods, her glasses shifting slightly.

“Skinny guys who compliment my deadpeople stitches.”

They snicker, then quick as lightning, laughter cracks out of them and into the bar room din.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) decided that this scene was too fun to cut to 100 words purely, so here's a two parter.


	11. Cagamosis

The kids are home, the nanny paid, and she’s smiling. Her arm is still in his, draped over his black suit, not too tightly. They nod, smile, wave as they pass through the throng of bodies.

“How long will it take for Nordick to find me, do you think?” Martin looks down at her, face crinkling with a smile, eyes mirthful. She smiles back, face glowing in response.

“If he doesn’t show up before we’ve been here ten minutes, color me surprised.” He’s so handsome, she wants to scream, surely there are cracks.  
  
There is no body in the basement.


	12. Basorexia

“Malcolm…”

“I trust you.” It trips over his tongue. Something caught it on its way out and he swears he meant to say something else. For now, he leans closer. She leans forward. “I trust you. I do. More than most.”

“Malcolm, I’m not forcing you into this. You either want to or you don’t.” She leans just a hair closer, looks him in the eye. “Don’t put me on a pedastle, Malcolm.”

“Never. I wouldn’t be able to reach you if I did.”

“That was cheesy.”

Dani closes the gap, he falls into her. She catches him, as always.


	13. Waldeinsamkeit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: this one has a bit of violence in it, feel free to skip if you'd rather not read about wounds or blood.

A pierced lung is worse than a snakebite.

Everything feels wet: his back, his hands, his chest.

Her hand hits his chest, pain and shortness of breath follow, stilletto knife flashes, she flees. Shock has sent him to the ground.

_I can’t breathe well, but that’s okay,_ Malcolm thinks as his knees hit leaf-covered mud. _It’s just a pierced lung, I’ll be fine. Breathe, a panic attack will only worsen it._

He looks down at his red, red hands.

The light through the yellow and red leaves catches his eye; he looks up, fixed by the sway of the limbs.


	14. Petrichor

She is so tired. Her body aches. She is so close to her apartment, her body’s already closing its eyes before she’s safe within her walls. She slumps against the door, hears the dull thud.

The door whisks open and she catches herself before falling into the body before her.

“Ainsley? Hey, sweetheart, are you, hey, look at me.” She lets Rebecca take her by the face and leans into her girlfriend’s hands. Her eyes crack open, red-rimmed, unshed tears glisten.

“Can we just cuddle for a while?”

Rebecca pulls her into their apartment, kisses the top of her head.


	15. Tarantism Pt. 1

“Dani, why are you looking so blue?”

Dani looks up from the potato and peeler in her hands. Her mom’s eyes are down on her own potatoes, grater moving at a pace. A crack of lightning shines through the window. Thunder follows.

“No reason, Mom.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“Mom!”

“What? I can’t call my own daughter out when she’s lying to me?” Brown meets brown, her mom’s eyes crinkle at the edges. “Don’t be so offended. You’ve always been an open book. Is it someone you’ve met recently?”

“Mo-om,” Dani groans, turning back to peeling.

Her mom snickers and grates potatoes.


	16. Tarantism Pt. 2

“Ooh, I like this song.” Dani’s eyes are on the potatoes as her mom stands, stretches, and starts to shake about the kitchen to the music. Dani tries frowning when her mom laughs and reaches for her hands still holding a potato. “Dance with me Dani,” she croons. Dani’s frown becomes harder to hide.

“Mom, the kugel’s never gonna get done at this point.”

Bella Powell just laughs as she drags her daughter onto the makeshift dancefloor. She drops her hands to start swinging her hips into Dani’s.

They devolve into laughter and dance, clapping on and off the beat.


	17. Firgun

The soft punch of pride hits him square in the chest. There’s stress and worry for them, of course, but sometimes--like tonight--he can’t help but be proud.

Gil stands front and center, right where JT and Dani can see him amongst the onlookers. JT’s face is pinched up on the stage, but his husband, Howard, is snapping pictures, so he throws smiles at him and his camera every once in a while, breaking his stoicism.

Dani glances at Gil very little, her eyes otherwise focused on the commendation. They smile at one another in the moments she looks askance, though.


	18. Redound

If Malcolm were an artist, he would sketch her at every angle, in every emotion, to capture only a pale likeness.

She squats down to speak to children. Her hands are visible whenever she’s talking with someone. Her voice ebbs and flows with someone stressed or having a break. He thinks on the little girl Dani comforted last week. He recalls the drifters she greets and chats with at corners and between crime scenes. He dwells upon her more than he has in a long while.

Something tickles his lungs, just above his stomach.

It distracts him.

He lets it.


	19. Baisemain (Undercover Pt. 1)

Her feet touch ground and a hand takes hers. Malcolm’s at the cardoor and for a moment--not inebriated, not on the cusp of a night terror, just him--he’s unguarded. Something drops into her stomach.

“Da--Michelle, you look radiant.”

They can’t take their eyes off each other; she at once wants to be swallowed by some pit and to grab his arm, charging into the gala. Instead, she stands as he guides her out of the car, onto the steps of the museum. Her hand is still in his and she forgets that fact until he presses it to his lips.


	20. Apodyopis (Undercover Pt. 2)

Her eyes follow him as someone pulls him away to meet some other high-minded individual with pockets deeper than her entire synagogue could offer up combined. He shrugs as he turns to walk with them.

The woman before her says something about art and Dani does her best to focus, but her eyes stray to Malcolm’s back, the cut of his suit, his orchestral gestures. She bites her tongue for focus. They’re looking for someone fitting Malcolm’s profile. It’s better that they’re talking with different groups. It is. She knows this.

She just wishes Malcolm was close enough to touch.


	21. Gymnophoria (Undercover Pt. 3)

At first, he assumes exhaustion is manifesting differently. A prickle at the back of his neck. Paranoia hadn’t been an issue in years. But, when he tries to spot someone, the only eyes he finds are Dani’s.  
  
He twists again to observe the room, to spot someone, and again it’s only Dani. This time she maintains eye contact.

Oh.  
  
Oh, he’s been oblivious and she’s been watching him. She is watching him. Drinking him in, more like.

He broadcasts a grin as he walks toward her. After all, she is undercover as his date. It’s all part of the cover.


	22. Hiraeth

“You want to ask me something.”

“I told you not to do that, Mal.”

“Yeah, but this time it’s eating you alive.” He grins at his little sister.

She doesn’t return it. Fingers fidget with each other and gazes follow different lines of sight. He turns back before she does. He watches.

“Were we ever happy?”

“...what?”

“Nevermind. Forget it. I should’nt’ve asked.”

A gaze meanders.

“We weren’t...we weren’t happy, Ainsley. It was a--a facade for him.” His gaze slides off of her shoulder.

Neither knows how to cut this particular, decades-old silence between them.

Neither wants to try.


	23. Concilliabule

“My dear girl, look at you.” He lifts off from his chair. It’s not hard to conjure up tears for Ainsley, who already offers her own. But she’s a strong girl, yes. She blinks and hides those tears away. Tucks them deep. He lets his eyes glisten a bit longer. A father is always happy to see his child, especially after all these years. “You’ve never come before. What’s changed?”

“You never asked for me.”

_Oh, Ainsley._ Martin smiles and takes a step forward. _ Jessica, you’ve cut her too adrift._

She backs up a step.

He can work with this.


	24. Merak

JT wakes up beside Howard, nosedown in the pillow. The sunlight’s shining through, warm on his back and lighting up his husband’s black hair with a halo. He leans down to press a kiss to his shoulder before rolling over and out of bed.

The water pressure takes a moment to hit hard and hot enough, but once it does, he groans as he wakes up further. He doesn’t hear Howard get up, but the bed’s empty when he leaves the steam-filled bathroom.

The sunlight’s still shining as he dresses and Howard calls ‘good morning.’

He wanders into the kitchen.


	25. Saudade

He sits in the dark.

He chokes off a sob and watches the homevideos, the volume off. The volume was on earlier, but the flood came along with her voice. He has a wobbly smile on now.

The quality’s shit. Past-him is swinging the videocamera wildly to avoid nieces and nephews, but when it’s not looking at a child, the lens captures Jackie. Who’s smiling and laughing and so full of life, it feels like he’s given his heart up for her to live again.

Gil pulls the tissues closer, smiles and cries and mourns in the dark.

His way.


	26. Evanescent

She’s still holding the phone, but JT’s sure he heard the other end click.

Shit.

He sits there like a bump on a log, knows that this isn’t a good sign, unsure about how to reach out to her. Her face is turned down, her color drawn.

“Hey.”

It breaks her frozen posture. Dani doesn’t even pretend to end the call, she just slams the phone into its handle and turns to him. She’s got her ‘yeah?’ face on, as if nothing had occurred. She’s unfrozen and the moment’s passed. Her vulnerability gone before he could speak.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah.”


	27. Mångata

They find him at the twist from day to night. The gunshot had ricocheted, shattered the woods’ quiet and smothered the party’s search. They’d hurtled past branches for possibly eternity, possibly a second.

He’s bleeding from his chest.

Gil fears the worst, falls to the dirt. Dani falls on his other side, puts her hands to Malcolm’s moon-face. They’re patting, slapping, high-pitched.

JT corrals the search party, gets a medic to the pale, bleeding man. The dogs are sent. He doesn’t weep. He worries and works. He lets the others crack.

They join him once the medics push them away.


	28. Badruka

“Get in the boat, Bright.” JT walks around Malcolm, steps down onto the deck, and moves toward the cabin and crime scene.

“You okay?” Edrisa slides into his periphery. She touches his elbow. Malcolm blinks and moves his arm. Smile turning toward her.

“Yes, thank you, Dr. Tanaka. Here, let me help you onto the boat.” He holds his hand out to her. She smiles at him after his hand leaves hers, her feet on the deck. He turns to assist an officer onto the boat.

His feet touch the boat only after Gil observes his avoidance for too long.


	29. Lalochezia

“Don’t you fucking dare!”

“Oh come on, Jess, you’re a smart woman. Are you honestly trying to use the same excuse as Caril Ann Fugate? You’re not fourteen. Haven’t been for a while.”

He draws close to her. She sees the vase. It shatters against the wall.

“Don’t you fucking try that shit, Martin. I swear to god-!”

“Malcolm!” Martin’s face erupts into a smile; Jessica’s face freezes, her back to the staircase. She can’t turn fast enough. Martin’s moving past her. He can’t touch Malcolm. He can’t touch Malcolm. He can’t-

She wakes up cold and drenched in sweat.


	30. Sombremesa

“This looks really,” Malcolm’s mouth twists, trying to find the word. “Greasy?”

Edrisa laughs, high-pitched and smile to her eyes. “Yeah?! That’s the point!” She stuffs the last few fries in her mouth and glances at Gil. He just raises an eyebrow. JT snorts, takes a few sips of his soda. Dani picks at her own fries. Malcolm leans back.

“So, any plans for the weekend ahead?”

“Howard and I are heading up to Lake Placid.”

“Just relaxing at home.”

“My brother and his family are coming into town.”

“Bright?”

“Nothing of note. Relaxing seems most likely during our reprieve.”


	31. Autolatry

He can reach out. It’s fine when he reaches out.

She can see how easily he reaches out to snag phones, hands, pats on the shoulder or back. He’s in control.

When it’s someone else that he flinches. He covers it up with a smile and a quick remark.

Her fingers undo the buttons of his shirt. She undoes his buttons, is surprised he hasn’t pulled away, reaches for the tape against the wire, and isn’t surprised when he flinches, but she lets him hide behind smiles.

Cold hands. It’s still too warm in New York for cold hands yet.


	32. Tsundoku

She sets her book down beside the overflowering teapot. It was a bit garish, but sometimes that suited her.

“Well, you’re coming in together. Was this plotted?” Jessica smiles, closed lip, as her children step closer to their window table.

“Morning, Mom.” Ainsley leans to kiss her cheek. Malcolm follows. They take their seats, glancing at one another. She doesn’t comment. Peace is precious.

“Planning on going somewhere, Mother?”

“No, Malcolm, just enjoying some memories. Is that so wrong?” Malcolm looks away, tilting his head to the side. Ainsley lifts her chin a bit and looks away from the table.


	33. Handschuhschneeballwerfer

“Jesus.” The vitriolic chatroom disappears from the screen. Her neck pops as she rolls it side-to-side. She shuts her laptop with an audible click and stands up.

“Have you finally gotten off?” Rebecca pads into the living room and plops down on the loveseat. Ainsley walks over and sinks next to her, jostling Rebecca’s plate of nachos.

“If I sit here, will you feed me?”

“Open up.”

Ainsley chews, Rebecca flicks on the tv, they cuddle. Grant Phillips’ big head looks even bigger on a widescreen. He drones on about a protest, face a little red even beneath the makeup.


	34. Ikigai

She fumbles for her phone, the alarm half in dreamscape, half in reality. The bed is warm, the sheets caught around her. She wiggles her arms out from within the cocoon; her bedroom feels hot.

Dani falls back to the bed after she thumbs the orange button. Her blackout curtains glow along the edges. Hollow is her stomach, so she finds her way out of bed. The cocoon deflates.

A waffle, peanut butter, and a glass of cider later, Dani works her way through her morning routine.

She pats Denver on the head as she passes back into her bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Denver's Dani's dog.


	35. Wanweird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your comments and kudos on this drabble collection. It really means a lot to me <3 I hope you enjoy this chapter!

He walks into his mom’s apartment and calls out a hello. The scent of dinner’s on the air, meat. Ainsley calls back.

“In the dining room!”

“Smells delicious! I didn’t realize meat was--”

“Hello, Malcolm.”

Martin sits at the head, Ainsley to his right, Jessica the left. Her face is stone, but Ainsley smiles. Malcolm wants to throw up or shake or both.

“Dr. Whitly.”

“Oh, you see? Always with the distancing.” Martin feigns sadness, frowning at his daughter, who shrugs back. He turns the smile on again. “Ah, I wouldn’t reach for anything, Malcolm.”

The Surgeon raises a gun.


	36. Lebensmüde Pt. 1

“Good Morning Detective Powell.” Malcolm totters and trips into an empty chair before Dani’s desk. His face is withinlit, bright from behind the eyes. It’s a manic day. Not the kind of Malcolm she wants to deal with right now.

Dani mumbles morning, clicking through the hospital portal.

“Not so good. Do you want a distraction?”

“No,” she says, trying to find an assistance button.

“Would you like to talk about it?”

The words take a moment to reach her, but they eventually do and she blinks and thinks before responding. She glances away from the screen.

“Are you offering?”


	37. Lebensmüde Pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Cancer Mention

He looks like an art museum after an 8.0 quake before he catches himself and nods. His smile is a butterfly’s leg. She looks away first.

Gives herself a moment.

“My dad’s sick.” He doesn’t offer platitudes, but his face is scrunched up in her peripherary. Dani swallows something tight and hot. “He’s been sick for a while, but we only just realized that it was cancer. Now there are hospital bills on top of the sickness. And it’s times like these that I wish I had siblings.”

She looks back at him through a tunnel, smiles through water.


	38. Vesper

She is small, curled beneath the thin sheet, drenched in summer sweat. The heat from beyond is oppressive, the stink of the city soups through the window, Rachel lies beside her, neither of them touching.

Their windows peeks in at the bed, the light comes through and casts great and small shadows. The slimness of the sun grows, falling across Ainsley’s eyes, drawing Rachel in shadows.

Before she can blink back tears of sweat, shadows run rampant, and the night lights of the city brighten some of the tangible darkness.

She twists beneath the sheet and breaths in the stink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to post one today to even out the chapters again. :) Probs will get back to the standard amount tomorrow ✌🏻


End file.
